Booting Mac Plus with scsi2sd...

[WakelessFoil]

I haven’t even had luck with getting LIDO or HD SC Setup to recognize that there’s a SCSI device plugged in. I think there’s something wrong with the way my SCSI2SD is set up or the way my SD card is formatted. How did you format/setup your device in the util program?

 

[MOS8_030]

I haven’t even had luck with getting LIDO or HD SC Setup to recognize that there’s a SCSI device plugged in. I think there’s something wrong with the way my SCSI2SD is set up or the way my SD card is formatted. How did you format/setup your device in the util program?

Are you providing power to the SCSI2SD? The Plus will not power the SCSI2SD.

There are some photos of the settings I used in the utility program in my posts in the thread referenced above.

 

[WakelessFoil]

Are you providing power to the SCSI2SD? The Plus will not power the SCSI2SD.

Yes I have an external Quantum SCSI drive that went bad so I mounted it in the case from the old drive. It has power coming from the power supply in that case and a 50 pin SCSI cable connects it to the DB-25 external cable leading to the Macintosh. 

 

[MOS8_030]

Yes I have an external Quantum SCSI drive that went bad so I mounted it in the case from the old drive. It has power coming from the power supply in that case and a 50 pin SCSI cable connects it to the DB-25 external cable leading to the Macintosh. 

Have you ever used another external SCSI device with the Plus?

Do you have any other SCSI Macs you can test the SCSI2SD with?

 

[WakelessFoil]

Have you ever used another external SCSI device with the Plus?

Do you have any other SCSI Macs you can test the SCSI2SD with?

Yes several quantum drives have worked on this Mac. I have an SE/30 and another plus I could try it on.

 

[jjclay]

Hello!

Am new to this forum but want to offer my experience with a couple of Mac Pluses and my SCSI2SD v5.0b - bottom line is that both boot absolutely fine from the SCSI2SD into a System 6.0.8 partition of 120Mb that I'd created using the cracked version of Apple HD Setup (the one that can be used with non-Apple disks). The Mac Plus systems boot up from the SCSI2SD in literally 10 seconds! As already covered above, I initially had a few problems which I thought it'd be useful to summarise the solution here:

1) SCSI2SD plugged in but not being recognised (e.g. by SCSI Probe). Symptom was that SCSI probe was saying the SCSI bus wasn't terminated, yet I had the resistor packs plugged into the SCSI2SD & lights on SCSI2SD don't blink.

Solution: ensure (as already noted above!) the SCSI2SD is powered through USB! I didn't have an enclosure, so providing CONTINUOUS power to the microUSB port worked a treat (I used a wall adaptor and USB-> microUSB cable). Powered, the SCSI2SD was recognised by SCSI Probe, and both Mac Pluses that I tried booted straight into the System 6.0.8 partition.

Don't bother with USB power banks, as I found that these power-down due to the low current draw from the SCSI2SD, and they do so at the worst time!

2) Ensure your Mac Plus has the latest v3 ROMs. This means that the "ROM-HI" chip should end in a C (it should be marked 342-0341-C), and the "ROM-LO" chip should end in a B (342-0342-B). The v3 ROM has the best implementation of SCSI for the Mac Plus (though it's still not perfect, hence the SCSI setting tweaks already mentioned:

- "Enable Unit Attention" should be OFF
- "SCSI Selection Delay" should be changed to 0 (mine was defaulting to 255)
- "Respond to short SCSI selection pulses" should be ENABLED

Not sure if the SCSI2SD works with v2 and v1 ROMs, but these should be quite rare as they are only likely to be in the earliest Mac Plus machines.

3) If you have multiple partitions / SCSI IDs (I had several with v7.5 and above, which aren't suitable for a 1Mb Mac Plus), then I recommend you use the SCSI2SD utility to disable all except your Mac Plus boot partition - at least until you've finished troubleshooting & have got a working setup.

As an aside, I'm also in the process of recapping the analogue boards of my 240v / International Mac Pluses, and have spent a few hours today to compile an up to date list of capacitor replacements (the previous Excel list from JDW was over 10 years old with a few parts no longer available, and it was for a 120v board where the capacitor listing didn't match). I'll post that separately in case anyone is interested...

 

[sfiera]

Not sure if the SCSI2SD works with v2 and v1 ROMs, but these should be quite rare as they are only likely to be in the earliest Mac Plus machines.

FWIW, my SCSI2SD has been working fine with my v2 ROM ($4D1EEAE1) Plus.

As an aside, I'm also in the process of recapping the analogue boards of my 240v / International Mac Pluses, and have spent a few hours today to compile an up to date list of capacitor replacements (the previous Excel list from JDW was over 10 years old with a few parts no longer available, and it was for a 120v board where the capacitor listing didn't match). I'll post that separately in case anyone is interested...

I’d be interested! I acquired a second, non-functional Japanese [?] Plus which appears to have an International board, though I’m not quite sure what to make of that, since Japan is a 100V country.

 

[WakelessFoil]

Are you providing power to the SCSI2SD? The Plus will not power the SCSI2SD.

There are some photos of the settings I used in the utility program in my posts in the thread referenced above.

I am going to reconfigure my set up based on the screenshots of your SCSI2SD util. Is there anything I have to do to the SD card besides confirming it’s empty and FAT32 formatted by windows? In other words if I have everything set up correctly, I can just insert a blank/clean SD card and connect the device to the Mac to be recognized and formatted?

 

[WakelessFoil]

I am going to reconfigure my set up based on the screenshots of your SCSI2SD util. Is there anything I have to do to the SD card besides confirming it’s empty and FAT32 formatted by windows? In other words if I have everything set up correctly, I can just insert a blank/clean SD card and connect the device to the Mac to be recognized and formatted?

Update:

So I configured my SCSI2SD utility to match the set up that MOS8_030 had and the plus recognized the two virtual drives! However when I try to format them I am greeted with an error. So frustrating! I almost thought I had it. I suspect it has something to do with the vendor information in the util (there's supposed to be a bunch of spaces everywhere) or the fact I am using HDSC Setup 7.3.5 (Patched) off of a emulated 224MB HD on a floppyEMU.

Here are the screenshots of my SCSI2SD util setup and the error from the HDSC Setup:

 

[sfiera]

Have you tried initializing the SD card from Windows? What I did is:

• Download an image from savagetaylor.com.
  
• Use balenaEtcher to write the image to the SD card.
  
• Make “Device Size” for Device 1 at least as large as the image.
  

Unfortunately, this will only get you a single drive. savagetaylor.com also shows a method for multiple drives on one SD Card, using a “Save to Device” button in the SCSI2SD util, but you’ve cropped your images. Do you have that button? Maybe you can use it instead of balenaEtcher.

 

[WakelessFoil]

Have you tried initializing the SD card from Windows? What I did is:

• Download an image from savagetaylor.com.
  
• Use balenaEtcher to write the image to the SD card.
  
• Make “Device Size” for Device 1 at least as large as the image.
  

Unfortunately, this will only get you a single drive. savagetaylor.com also shows a method for multiple drives on one SD Card, using a “Save to Device” button in the SCSI2SD util, but you’ve cropped your images. Do you have that button? Maybe you can use it instead of balenaEtcher.

I have tried that method several times and it hasn’t worked. Mac sits there asking for a disk but the question mark is frozen (not blinking). Mouse moves so the computer doesn’t lock up.

 

[Crutch]

Sorry long thread here so this has probably been said - but any particular reason you are using HD SC Setup to format? Did you try Lido?

Also the non-blinking question mark usually (in my experience - always) just means the floppy drive ribbon isn’t connected. 

 

[WakelessFoil]

Sorry long thread here so this has probably been said - but any particular reason you are using HD SC Setup to format? Did you try Lido?

Also the non-blinking question mark usually (in my experience - always) just means the floppy drive ribbon isn’t connected. 

No worries. I tried Lido 7.5.6 but for some reason it does not recognize the device properly or sometimes not at all. When I run Lido it scans through all the SCSI device ID's rather quickly but stops at the ID that I set the SCSI2SD to (0 and 1) and spits out a error. Could this be that the system extension has a black X over it when the Mac boots? maybe thats why Lido can't see the device?

 

[LaPorta]

You don't need the extension installed. In fact, I'm not even sure what the extension does.

I had similar issues: I got around it by simply making one SCSI ID and partitioning the one large drive into two with Drive Setup.

 

[pcamen]

I had a similar issue yesterday and it was improper termination.  That Mac wasn’t fully seeing the drive when it was terminated and shouldn’t have been.

 

[WakelessFoil]

You don't need the extension installed. In fact, I'm not even sure what the extension does.

I had similar issues: I got around it by simply making one SCSI ID and partitioning the one large drive into two with Drive Setup.

I have tried only setting up one device before but maybe it's worth another try. Thank you for informing me about the extension.

I had a similar issue yesterday and it was improper termination.  That Mac wasn’t fully seeing the drive when it was terminated and shouldn’t have been.

I have the v5.1, doesn't that mean I have software termination? The enclosure I installed the SCSI2SD in has two DB-25 ports wired together to the drive maybe that is causing a termination error?

 

[Realitystorm]

I have tried that method several times and it hasn’t worked. Mac sits there asking for a disk but the question mark is frozen (not blinking). Mouse moves so the computer doesn’t lock up.

I'll have to give it a go again to make sure something isn't wrong with my images/instructions.   (I'm the Steve from that site)

I've had success with my mac plus, the key was making sure I supplied additional power with the USB connection (and the other instructions for the Mac Plus in section 5)

I assume you've also tried multiple SD cards?  Although you should have gotten an error when you did the image write if that was the problem.   I'm away from home at the moment and will not be able to test until sometime next week.   If you solve your problem make sure to let us know.   Hopefully it isn't an issue with your plus's SCSI port.

 

[Realitystorm]

I have tried only setting up one device before but maybe it's worth another try. Thank you for informing me about the extension.

I have the v5.1, doesn't that mean I have software termination? The enclosure I installed the SCSI2SD in has two DB-25 ports wired together to the drive maybe that is causing a termination error? 

Just saw your last comment: I have the v5.1, doesn't that mean I have software termination? The enclosure I installed the SCSI2SD in has two DB-25 ports wired together to the drive maybe that is causing a termination error?

Yep, that's probably your problem.  You probably have the SCSI2SD config setting with termination enabled, and your enclosure also has termination enabled.   If you turn off the config setting for your SCSI2SD and the problem goes away let us know.  I'll then update my site with an additional warning.

 

[dochilli]

Do you use firmware 4.8? My plus did not boot with 4.7 but with 4.8.

 

[WakelessFoil]

I'll have to give it a go again to make sure something isn't wrong with my images/instructions.   (I'm the Steve from that site)

I've had success with my mac plus, the key was making sure I supplied additional power with the USB connection (and the other instructions for the Mac Plus in section 5)

I assume you've also tried multiple SD cards?  Although you should have gotten an error when you did the image write if that was the problem.   I'm away from home at the moment and will not be able to test until sometime next week.   If you solve your problem make sure to let us know.   Hopefully it isn't an issue with your plus's SCSI port.

I have tried several SD cards. BalenaEtcher does give me an error before writing the provided images to the SD card but it allows me to continue. These images are supposed to be .dsk files correct? And I am supposed to write them to a normal (FAT32) empty SD card? The images do not open in mini vmac. Not that it's a necessity to use them with vmac but when I try to open them it asks to clean and initialize the drive.

Just saw your last comment: I have the v5.1, doesn't that mean I have software termination? The enclosure I installed the SCSI2SD in has two DB-25 ports wired together to the drive maybe that is causing a termination error?

Yep, that's probably your problem.  You probably have the SCSI2SD config setting with termination enabled, and your enclosure also has termination enabled.   If you turn off the config setting for your SCSI2SD and the problem goes away let us know.  I'll then update my site with an additional warning.

I will try that and let you all know as soon as I get back to my work bench. Thank you.

Do you use firmware 4.8? My plus did not boot with 4.7 but with 4.8.

I am using firmware 4.8.